EU Tax Rules

http://onemanbandaccounting.co.uk/eu-vat-changes-2015/

Not good news for anyone selling digital content including games and apps.

 

And some more info from sources with opposing political biases in order to remove that from the discussion from the get go.

http://www.theguardian.com/small-bu...-eu-vat-regulations-threaten-micro-businesses

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...AT-rules-threaten-to-kill-UK-micro-firms.html

Just to clarify for those that don't know. The change is that businesses must now pay VAT in the country of sale rather than just the country of business and with a no minimum income exemption, i.e. if you only make one sale in the EU regardless of where you live in the world then you will be charged VAT in the country of sale.

This has huge ramifications for everyone here. You have three options. Set up VAT accounts in every country in the EU, use a VATMOSS system to handle the VAT mess for you and charge VAT in every country (hoping that your storefront will maintain the regulatory two pieces of evidence for location of each sale), or simply cease to sell to anyone in the EU.

Logically it's going to be impossible to actually block sales to EU countries thanks to proxies and so on, the solutions of registering in every country or using VATMOSS are clearly not feasible for small businesses such as indie developers. There's a good chance this could seriously impact small businesses, raising the bar of entry to digital sales prohibitively high. This may shut down a lot of Unity users right away.

 

Depends which sales platform you are using and if they are doing it all for you. I never got a 100% sure answer how it will go with Asset Store because the agreement does not indicate it clearly (conflicts) at least to me. @Graham Dunnett did answer what they came up with but it did not look too sure answer (yet).

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/taxes-in-uk-for-unity-developers.281841/

 

Actually there may be light at the end of the tunnel for many Unity users, apparently there is exemption for those who sell through App stores provided that app store handles the VAT side. The downside of which is that of course this helps solidify the monopolies of existing app/asset stores.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/25/eus-new-vatmoss-rules-could-create-a-vatmess-for-startups/

This seems a very poorly thought out law. Personally as I sell outside of app stores I'll just shut down my site until I can find a solution (maybe just block the EU and proxies, and hope that covers my ass sufficiently). I also wonder how this works for freelancers working overseas and telecommuting between countries for developers.

 

Yes thats why I wanted more clear answer cause when I read the asset store agreement it says I'm responsible for everything related to VAT so there is at least something wrong even tho I think they currently collect the VAT but does UT also report it after 1.1.2015?

App store is clearly does it all and Google announced while ago that they will do it:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/138000?hl=en

 

The Unity Asset Store does it in the same way. You receive 70% of your gross sales and only have to handle things like your income tax. You don't see the VAT anywhere, nor do you get it from Unity.

 

Yes thats how I understood it from post by Graham in the other thread BUT it's kinda conflicting with the current license agreement text.